DEFINITIONS 539
14. Differentiation means the development of differ-
ences, the separation of parts from a whole. In this work
I employ the concept chiefly in respect to psychological
functions. So long as one function is still so merged with
one or more of the other functions—as for example thinking
with feeling, or feeling with sensation, etc.—as to be quite
unable to appear alone, it is in an archaic (q.v.) state, and
therefore undifferentiated, i.e. it is not separated out as a
special part from the whole having its own independent
existence, An undifferentiated thinking is incapable of
thinking apart from other functions, i.e. it is constantly
mixed up with sensations, feelings, or intuitions; such
thinking may, for instance, become blended with sensations
and phantasies, as exemplified in the sexualization (Freud)
of feeling and thinking in neurosis. The undifferentiated
function is also commonly characterized by the qualities
of ambivalency and ambitendency*, i.e. every positive brings
with it an equally strong negative, whereby characteristic
inhibitions spring up in the application of the undifferen-
tiated function. Such a function suffers also from a fusing
together of its individual parts; thus an undifferentiated
faculty of sensation, for instance, is impaired through an
amalgamation of the separate spheres of sensation
("audition coloride"), and undifferentiated feeling through
confounding hatred with love. Just so far as a function is
wholly or mainly unconscious is it also undifferentiated, i.&
it is not only fused together in its parts but also merged
with other functions.
Differentiation consists in the separation of the selected
function from other functions, and in the separation of
its individual parts from each other. Without differentia-
i Bleuler, Die Negative Suggestibilitat (Psych. N&ur«, Wochenschr,,
1904, 27-28).
Idem, Zur Theoris des Schizophrenen Negativismus (PsycH. Neur
Wochenschv., 1910, 18-21).
Idem, Lekrbuch der Psyckiatrie, pp. 92, 285.